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Michael Tierney to resign from Flagstar Bank

Michael Tierney, the executive vice president of personal financial services at Troy-based Flagstar Bank, told his team today that he is resigning from the bank effective at the end of the month.

"We've had a good run here. We did a great job of turning the bank around, and it's been a highlight of my career," Tierney told Crain's.

"It's time for me to take a good, long look at what I want to do next. I have some opportunities in front of me. I want to pursue them, but I don't want to pursue them too fast," he said.

Tierney replaced Joseph Campanelli as president and CEO of both the bank and its holding company, Flagstar Bancorp Inc., in October 2012.

Campanelli had been brought in to turn the bank around in September 2009 by its biggest investors, New York-based MatlinPatterson Thrift Investments LP. In February 2011, he hired Tierney to head up Michigan operations and jumpstart Flagstar's commercial lending operations.

Last May, Alessandro DiNello replaced Tierney in the top positions.

"Sandro is a great guy. I couldn't have asked for better people to work with," said Tierney, who is 58. "It's just time to think of what I want to do next."

Tierney spent 28 years at Comerica Bank in a variety of roles.

From 2006-2010 he was president and CEO of Madison Heights-based Peoples State Bank and its holding company, PSBGroup Inc. The bank was then beginning to have serious trouble in its commercial loan portfolio and would be shut down by state and federal regulators in February 2011.

But Tierney avoided much of that downward spiral. In March 2010, he resigned from the bank to become president and CEO of Bluewater Bank Group, which was formed to try to buy struggling Citizens First Bank in Port Huron.

But his group lost out to First Michigan Bank of Troy, which used Citizens as a springboard to become one of the fastest-growing banks in the U.S., operating now as Talmer Bank and Trust.